Werner Vogels, Amazon CTO, delivers the final keynote of re:Invent 2019. (AWS Photo)
Welcome to Mostly Cloudy, your source for everything that happened over the past week in cloud computing. This week, we’re not going to come even close to recapping everything, but here are a few things that stuck with me on the flight back to Portland from re:Invent 2019.
This Week in Cloud:
One of Amazon’s organizing principles is the concept of Day One: to most rational people, Amazon is a 25-year-old behemoth that bent the modern economy in its image, but Amazon employees are trained to believe they should think and act the same way the fledgling company did back in 1994, when CEO Jeff Bezos had more hair and less money.
For the most part, Amazon Web Services follows the same guide, but these days, AWS does not think and act toward customers the same way it did back in 2006. And that is exactly what it should be doing; built on the backs of software developers who helped guide the development of early features as much as anyone, AWS now sells its services to some of the largest companies and governments in the world.
AWS will likely quibble with that last statement, given that the company continues to build most of its services with developers and site-reliability engineers in mind, rather than CIOs. But there’s little doubt anymore that the company sits at the center of the enterprise tech universe, and that a lot of things have changed since AWS first hosted re:Invent at the Venetian in Las Vegas in 2012.
There were a little more than 100 sessions at that first two-day event. AWS hosted more than 1,000 sessions this week at hotels spread up and down the Las Vegas strip, with more than 65,000 people coming to learn more about AWS services or to ride its coattails.
(AWS Photo)
That scope and scale makes it impossible to have a definitive re:Invent experience, but here’s an attempt:
The lines between serverless and containers continue to blur, as products like EKS, AWS’s managed Kubernetes server, are now available on its Fargate serverless service. Containers make a lot of sense for companies that have already invested in virtual-machine technology, and if you can remove a layer of complexity by managing the infrastructure that runs those customers, why not?
AWS is officially a hybrid cloud company with the launch of AWS Outposts, and it’s even signaling that it realizes multicloud computing is going to be A Thing. This is a huge departure from the AWS of years past, spurred by the realization that newer customers have a different way of operating than the rogue teams of developers who used AWS in its early days.
AWS really, really wants people to take it seriously as an artificial intelligence company. Jassy devoted significant airtime to AI during his State of the Company speech on Tuesday, and appeared with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to tout a new AI partnership (more on that in a bit).
Attending re:Invent often feels like being on the receiving end of a firehose of new information and launches. That was true to some extent this year, but the pace seemed slower compared to previous years.
Customers take re:Invent keynote opportunities seriously. David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, first appeared surreptitiously on stage in a black t-shirt as “DJ D-Sol,” spinning some tunes in the ten minutes prior to the start of Jassy’s keynote on Tuesday before later taking the stage in his Wall Street Executive outfit.
Werner Vogels remains the soul of AWS’s cloud organization, connecting with techies in a way that the suits can’t really duplicate during his Thursday morning keynote.
Easily two-thirds, if not more, of the journalists covering re:Invent came from outside the U.S., at least judging by the press room at lunch time. (Journalists like free food.) That underscores the reach the company now enjoys around the world, which was not really the case in 2012.
There is so much growth ahead for cloud computing, and while that tide is definitely lifting all boats, AWS has the biggest and most experienced boat. Those dynamics seem unlikely to change for the next several years, which likely means that even more people will crowd Las Vegas next year.
Still, it’s worth noting: around 170,000 people were expected this week in Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo. Even as it gets bigger, cloud computing remains a small world.
Disclsoure: AWS paid for my accommodations in Las Vegas.
Last Tidbits from re:Invent
Amazon's Werner Vogels On Reinventing Virtualization (CRN)
AWS spent a lot of time this week talking about Nitro, the combination of hardware and software it uses to manage its cloud infrastructure that is also the underpinning for things like AWS Outposts. Vogels and AWS engineer Clare Liguori went deep on Nitro and Firecracker, an open-source “micro VM”, during Vogels’ Thursday morning keynote.
New Amazon Builders’ Library: This Is ‘Not Taught At School’ (CRN)
Vogels’ keynote is usually long on theory and infrastructure philosophy, but he gets to announce a few new things every now and then. The Amazon Builders Library is a set of articles that describe how AWS builds AWS, and while those approaches might be overkill for most companies they might trigger a few ideas.
At Cloud Jamboree, AWS Makes Room for Frenemies (The Information)
One thing that a lot of people don’t understand about enterprise computing is that despite their on-stage rhetoric toward competitors, which is lapped up by tech media reporters who need to file something coherent from their trip to an event they don’t really understand, companies partner with their competitors all the time. The Information notes that IBM was both a punching bag and a welcome exhibitor during the week.
Five Things to Take Away From re:Invent 2019 (Redmonk)
Stephen O’Grady is a wise observer of the enterprise tech world, even for a Red Sox fan. His perspective on the week is worth noting, and in line with much of what I observed, particularly with respect to the Graviton2 Arm processor.
And Now, A Word…
The last official event I attended at re:Invent left a weird taste in my mouth that took a bit of time to unpack. Jassy appeared on stage Thursday to announce an expanded cloud and AI partnership with the National Football League, joined by Commissioner Roger Goodell, who has overseen a troubling era of a game many of us love dearly.
The NFL needs to convince the public that it is working toward player safety without compromising any of the intensity that captivates its audience. I don’t think this is going to work.
Around the Cloud
Why clouds will always, eventually, fail (ZDNet)
Computers, amirite? One thing about spending a lot of time with software developers and distributed systems engineers is how often they privately laugh about the bubble-gum-and-popsicle-stick construction that is the modern internet; it’s amazing anything ever works.
Microsoft inks $5B cloud partnership deal with KPMG (Silicon Angle)
Most cloud companies kept quiet during re:Invent week, but Microsoft announced a big cloud deal with KPMG. The deal covers both internal KPMG usage of Azure and other Microsoft services, as well as a reseller agreement covering KPMG clients.
Cloud vendors burp after last year's server sales feast, couldn't possibly eat any more (The Register)
After Intel introduced its latest-generation server processor last year, cloud vendors went on a spending spree, and that surge has run its inevitable course. Most of the bigger cloud companies build their own servers from raw components rather than buying from the likes of Dell and HPE, but plenty of smaller clouds and on-premises data center operators stick with the traditional vendors.
Google Cloud gets FedRAMP High tag (FCW)
This is a big deal for Google Cloud’s government business, which has ebbed and flowed over the years amid employee pushback but seems to be a renewed priority under CEO Thomas Kurian. The certification means government agencies can now use Google Cloud for workloads with stringent security requirements.
Okta's CEO explains why cloud computing has opened the door for smaller, specialized firms to challenge giants like Microsoft and Google (Business Insider)
Okta is an interesting company, rethinking the concept of single sign-on technology that allows corporate workers to access a variety of sensitive company assets with one step. Microsoft’s Active Directory product has dominated this market for a very long time, but the flexibility of cloud computing allows companies to pick and choose the best application for their needs, rather than buying a huge suite of enterprise software from a single vendor.